Something For A Rainy Day

David Jorgensen, 10, is monitoring the progress of this
meteorological monster--a mass of cold air that shows up on a computer
screen as icy blue. Everything on the other side of the purple frontal
boundary is still warm--yellow and red. But not for long. Not if those
arrows--the wind-- have anything to do with it.

"That weather's going downhill, and the wind is blowing it in this
direction,'' says David, whose bright yellow baseball cap seems to be a
permanent fixture on his head, indoors or out. "It's probably a mixture
of things, but I'd guess that snow will come to us tonight.''

The fact that the National Weather Service was forecasting rain
didn't discourage David, who stuck to his guns. The next day, most of
the Hartford-area schools were closed. It was a snow day.

Look out, Willard Scott.

David, a student at the Talcott Mountain Science Center in Avon,
Conn., was merely demonstrating the formidable capabilities of the
Accuweather Forecaster--a sort of ultimate Nintendo game for
climatology buffs. It plays a starring role in the science center's
topical new weather education project that is, like the weather itself,
a mixed bag.

On one level, it is a live television program broadcast by satellite
to schools throughout the Northeast; on another, a long-term classroom
study of the weather, through the use of time-honored tools--rain
gauges, cloud charts, and all manner of whirling doodads--paired with
advanced computer technology.

Dan Barstow hopes students and teachers will make good use of all
the climate technology, but particularly the newly christened Regional
Student Weather Network. He, along with local meteorologist Bill
Danielson are the nervously smiling co-hosts of the biweekly television
broadcast, which is, Barstow says, "the glue that holds all the pieces
together.''

Founded in 1967 to serve a handful of local towns as a science
resource center for their schools, the nonprofit facility's influence
now extends well beyond the rumpled lowlands of central Connecticut.
Funded by grants, Talcott Mountain is now a regional center whose sole
purpose is science education. Many local students still come to the
mountain for weekend workshops on everything from astronomy to
chronobiology (the study of body rhythms), and a talented few-- David,
for example--attend the center's own on-site academy full time. But if
students and teachers can't come to the mountain, the mountain will
come to them, through science videotapes and satellite broadcasts,
which began in 1984.

Even by the center's own ambitious standards, the new weather
network is something else again. Not many shows of any kind,
educational or otherwise, are live; this one is. But there's another
twist. In this show, viewers talk back. They phone in questions and
turn in folksy reports on local weather conditions. Sort of like Larry
King, but with frost warnings.

It is the morning of the show's inaugural broadcast, back in early
March. About half of the 80 schools that ultimately will be selected to
participate in the program are tuned in. Danielson is trying to find
Boyertown, Pa., on a wall map of the nine Northeast states that receive
the center's signal. A teacher there is phoning in a report on local
weather conditions. Only one problem: Where is Boyertown? Danielson's
blue marker pen hovers uncertainly between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
The caller sounds like he's giving long-distance directions on how to
hang a picture: "Over to the left a little bit, over, over, now back
again....''

Danielson's pen at last settles somewhere near Carlisle, certainly
not Boyertown, but the teacher, laughing, says it's close enough.

Another teacher calls in to report light cloud cover over Trumbull,
Conn., with winds from the west, and temperatures near 50 degrees.
Danielson dutifully jots down all the information--making a mark on the
map that looks like a cross between an eighth note and a crow's
foot--and moves on to the next caller. This time it's a girl named
Cheryl, from West Hartford, playing Stump The Weatherman: "What causes
fog to disappear?'' (Answer, according to Danielson: the warmth of the
sun and the occasional shove from a stiff breeze.)

And so it goes for an hour, as more than a dozen students and
teachers, grades 5-12, pepper Danielson with questions about surface
wind speed, barometric pressure, and relative humidity. Barstow,
meanwhile, demonstrates the Accu-weather Forecaster, sometimes to help
answer questions, but mainly to show students and teachers how the
software might be used in the classroom. Later broadcasts will also
make use of the center's own sophisticated Doppler radar, which
provides advance warning of approaching storms within a 300-mile radius
of the mountain.

(The Doppler, in particular, is so sensitive, Barstow says, that
during bad weather, science center employees often check the screen
before leaving for lunch. That way they can time their departure to
coincide with a 5- or 10-minute-long break in the clouds.)

Later, with their first telecast well behind them, Barstow and
producer Willi Runk can kick back and grin like a couple of guys who
have ridden out a tornado and emerged unscathed from the root cellar.
True, the show had its rough spots. The Doppler wasn't up and running,
and a video overlay card, which will transfer the image on Barstow's
computer onto the television screen, also was not working. And they
know they'll have to brush up on their geography. However, every school
seemed to receive the signal, and there were few problems with the
crew, some of whom are students at the center's academy. Over all, a
nice balance.

"On the one hand, we have all these diverse elements coming in--the
phone calls, the map, the Accu-weather Forecaster. And you have people
who are not used to performing before cameras,'' says Runk, whose gran-
ny glasses and handlebar moustache give him the look of a German
mercenary (his role in weekend re-enactments of Revolutionary War
battles). "On the other hand, you don't want the thing to look so slick
that it doesn't seem real.''

That the weather network is, by design, a little rough around the
edges is a quality that appeals to Runk.

"It's live and interactive,'' he says. "And that adds an excitement
and an immediacy that contributes to its instructional value. You
literally see things as they develop.''

That "loose is more'' philosophy also applies to the broader
classroom study that will accompany the show, adds Barstow. "Our role
is to provide a structure for study,'' he explains, "but part of the
inherent design is to allow for flexibility.''

The center, which received $371,000 in federal grant money for the
project, is picky, however, about who it accepts into the program.
Schools in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont are eligible
to apply, but they must have a welldeveloped plan and the means to
receive the telecast.

"We're looking for an aboveaverage commitment,'' says Barstow. "Our
preference is that they have a satellite dish. About a third of our
schools do.'' Others, he says, either receive the signal courtesy of
their local cable provider or use the satellite facilities of a local
business, hotel, or conference center. So far, more than 300 schools
have applied, and some are willing to pay cash to receive what others
will receive for free.

By far, the most valuable component of the program is the
Accu-weather Forecaster software. It allows unlimited access, by
computer modem, to constantly updated weather information--all the
basic raw bits of data, Barstow explains, that the professionals use to
piece together forecasts. And he should know. Before he came to Talcott
Mountain, Barstow created the forecaster for Accu-weather, the private,
Pennsylvania-based weather forecasting service.

The software seems to put all the world's weather patterns into
motion. Bright, wavy color bands roll across on-screen maps of the
United States-- or anyplace else, for that matter--to illustrate a
range of temperatures and high- and low-pressure areas, wind speed and
direction, and surface barometric pressure. It can furnish detailed
weather forecast information worldwide, and it even provides users with
a "sky box'' view of Earth, with realtime weather satellite images.

"There are two ways, basically, to use this with kids,'' Barstow
explains. "They can analyze raw data and draw a weather map showing
cloud cover, precipitation, frontal boundaries, and so on. Then, they
make their own forecast. Or, they can call up the forecast for a given
area and ask why.''

For instance, he continues, Yuma, Ariz., might be setting a record
high of 95 degrees on a day in late winter. What combination of factors
accounts for this unseasonable weather?

Local children who attend the center's on-site academy for
scientifically gifted elementary school students were among the first
to put the software through its paces. Although some educators might
wince at the comparison, for these children using the forecaster is
more like playing a popular video game than doing school work.

One, the diminutive Megan North, 10, is firm in her opinion: The
Accuweather Forecaster is better than books. "There's no comparison,''
she says. "Textbooks are boring. This is real, and you're doing it
yourself.''

Another feature likely to be popular among schoolchildren is the
soft- ware's built-in communications program, which enables children in
each of the schools to exchange information by modem.

"Ben Franklin was the first to understand the motion of storms,''
says Barstow. "What Ben understood, the kids can also learn. For
example, if it rains in the morning in Philadelphia, the kids there can
send a message up to a class in Boston and ask them to get in touch
when the rain starts there.''

Aside from what they'll learn about thunderheads and ice crystals,
Barstow adds, they'll be exposed to the same technology used by
professional meteorologists. And what they learn has broader
applications: "We can break out into other areas of Earth science, like
acid rain and global warming. We can have kids do local observations
and try to determine trends.''

Best of all, from a teacher's perspective, weather forecasting is
strictly pass-fail.

"If a kid says it's going to rain, the next day he gets up and sees
whether he was right or wrong,'' says Barstow. "Where else can you get
such immediate feedback?''

--Jeff Meade

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.